


give an inch, take a mile

by orphan_account



Series: determinate chaos [3]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Genre: (the harm is an illusion), Angels, Banter, Blood, Body Horror, Demons, Demons Are Assholes, Dick Jokes, Dickhead Persona, Dungeon Crawling, Established Relationship, Harm to Children, Horror, Humor, Innuendo, M/M, Mild Gore, Mood Whiplash, Post-Canon, Throwing Established Lore Into the Collective Unconscious, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:15:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25039105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Igor: A Persona is a reflection of your true self. A part of your soul.Goro: Fuck you.OR: Goro experiences his first fusion accident.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: determinate chaos [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620961
Kudos: 160





	give an inch, take a mile

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. This story starts off funny and then takes a dive into some mildly horror-like places. I honestly don't think it's anything worse than what you can find in a mainline SMT game, but Persona games also tend to be much lighter on the horror elements than the mainline games, so beware!  
> 2\. The Harm to Children tag is there for a reason. It's near the end, but it's an illusion and not too explicit.  
> 3\. This story came about because I wanted to tell a dick joke. I'm not sure if I actually told a dick joke or not, but I hope you have a good time regardless.  
> 4\. There are at least two other stories that take place between [it's the spirit of the thing](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21935281/chapters/52353016) and this fic, but I'm not writing them in order and I think it's mostly enjoyable even without the background information.  
> 5\. To enjoy this tale to its fullest, you need to know [what Rahu looks like](https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Rahu). Please note the link contains a NSFW image. Thank you.

The Velvet Room was a chaotic, wet mess when Goro stepped through its immaterial doorway. There were residents he'd never seen before in the corner of the room, although they didn't appear to be doing much. A young man bowed his head so low it nearly brushed against the floor, and a woman waved away plumes of sludgy black smog from, inexplicably, a microwave. 

A low, booming alarm blared out from the unseeable ceiling. The smell of burnt food wafted from the corner. Igor dabbed water off his brow with a lace handkerchief. Lavenza mopped the floor with no small amount of belligerence, although she stopped and dropped the mop once she saw Goro. He looked at her, then gestured to the Velvet Room as a whole.

"Should I come back later?"

She shook her head before summoning his compendium to her hand. "No. It's all right," she said, voice barely audible over the alarm. 

Goro ducked under a construction beam and stepped forward. "Are you sure?"

Lavenza nodded as the other two in the corner left the room, the young man carrying the smoking microwave with him as they vanished behind a curtain. "Yes, I am certain. Do not worry yourself with the state of this room, as it is not indicative of your heart. We were merely experimenting with human technology. Please, allow us to perform our duty."

The guest chair was soaking wet. Goro elected to stand.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," Igor said. He patted his nose with the handkerchief, and Goro tried and failed to not stare. "How may we be of service?"

The alarm had not shut up. Goro half-shouted in order to be heard. "I want to fuse Persona. Just two from my stock."

"Very well," Igor said, and with a wave of his free hand, Goro's stock of Persona leapt from his mind and appeared as cards before them, arranged in neat and orderly rows and columns. Goro looked through the various fragments of his soul and picked out the two he wanted to fuse, although the task was harder than he would have liked. 

Goro had prepared a plan to fuse a better defensive Persona before he stepped into the Velvet Room, but with the alarm still blaring, the water seeping into his shoes, and the smell of smoldering carbon lingering in the air, he found it difficult to remember what, exactly, he wanted to do. Something with nullifying the most amount of elements. 

In the end, he made a Persona with Repel Physical, Repel Fire, Repel Wind, Repel Nuclear, and Repel Bless. To his astonishment, Igor allowed him to inherit three more skills. That had never happened before, and Goro found himself floundering as the water seeped into his socks. The alarm also kept blasting away, and Goro picked the remaining three almost on a whim: Riot Gun, Diarahan, and Evil Touch. Inviolable Beauty was the trait best suited for the new Persona's needs, and he handed the final request to Igor.

"Is this the Persona you desire?" Igor asked, voice drowned out by the honking of the alarm.

Goro nodded, and Lavenza plucked the two cards out of the air, allowing the rest of his stock to fall back into his mind. She passed them to Igor, who let them hover above his open palm. She opened Goro's compendium next, and Igor threw the two cards up into the air.

Goro witnessed this scene dozens upon dozens of times by this point. The cards would turn into balls of light before beaming themselves down into the compendium, and then Lavenza would slam the book shut. His compendium would shake and fly out of Lavenza's hands, then gently fall back down and lay itself out on Igor's desk, where his new Persona would reveal itself to them all.

That was not what happened this time.

When the cards turned into light, they did not beam themselves down into his compendium in a nice, neat ray of light. Instead, the lights wobbled precariously in the air before they exploded.

The alarm grew shrill, and then it started to rain.

"Oh, no," Lavenza said over the shrieking as Igor sighed and closed his eyes. "The sprinklers were set off again."

"It was not my fault this time, Margaret," a man's voice shouted from behind the curtains. "I swear I have not touched the micro-waved since!"

Goro was getting soaked. "Why do you have a sprinkler system in the Velvet Room?"

Igor opened his eyes. "The safety of our guests is paramount, especially after what befell you and your other half when the False God took over this space. Think of this as a preventative against further disaster."

"What the hell is a sprinkler system going to do against another False God," Goro did not get a chance to ask. The moment he was about to speak, the cards exploded again, then crashed together with a sound reminiscent of two marching bands colliding into each other at top speed.

From the collision, a single card floated down and landed on the open compendium. Lavenza picked up the card, looked it over, and then blushed.

"Oh, dear," she said, then placed it face down in the book. 

Some part of Goro's brain told him to leave now and not ask any questions. He should have listened to it. "What? What happened to my Persona?"

"Ah," Lavenza said. She gently closed his compendium for a second, then opened it again.

His new Persona floated serenely above the book. Goro stared at it.

Then he started at the large, throbbing, veiny, purple dick that came out of its decapitated head.

"How ya doin', man?" the Persona said, voice booming above the alarm. "Name's Rahu. I'd shake your hand, but I don't have any, hahaha!"

"What the fuck," Goro replied.

Igor cleared his throat. "You have just experienced a fusion accident. Although this was not the Persona you desired, it still emerged from the depths of your heart. Remember: a Persona is a reflection of your true self. A part of your soul."

"Fuck you," Goro said. 

Igor chuckled. "Remember: appearances are often deceiving. Even though this Persona may have a unique appearance—" 

"It has a fucking _penis_ growing out if its forehead."

"—it may still serve an invaluable purpose for your journey."

"It's a decapitated head with six eyes on a golden platter with a penis coming out of its forehead! What the hell can this thing possibly do?!"

"This Persona is actually quite useful," Lavenza said, voice intentionally composed. "In addition to the abilities you made it inherit, it is naturally capable of repelling Pierce, Fire, Electricity, Psi, Curse, Earth, and Water. This means it is able to repel all forms of damage save Almighty."

Goro froze. "You're joking."

Lavenza shook her head and pulled up Rahu's stats. The penis-head Persona was, in fact, absolutely broken and repelled _everything_. It also had Inviolable Beauty.

"Furthermore," Lavenza said as Goro stared at its stats in dismay, "the Repel Fire skill is now redundant, but it seems Rahu wishes to transform that skill into something else. Will you permit it?"

"Why the hell not," Goro muttered. "I'm going to sacrifice this thing as soon as I can."

He watched the skill mutate and change into Unshaken Will.

A moment of silence passed, save for the shriek of the alarm and the sound of the water gushing out of the sprinklers, before Lavenza spoke again.

"It is now immune to all mental ailments as well."

"Thank you," Goro hissed as he ground his teeth so hard his jaw ached. "I noticed. Let me sacrifice this thing to some other Persona."

"Alas," Igor said as he tried in vain to pat his nose dry with the soaked handkerchief, "we cannot do anything more at the moment. We must first stop the security system."

"How the hell is a sprinkler supposed to serve as a security system," Goro yelled, but Lavenza was already pushing him towards the exit.

"I am sorry, my Rebel, but we must address the system with utmost haste. Please come back at a later time. However, you may wish to try out your new Persona in battle, even if it was not what you expected." Her smile was kind even as she shoved him out of the Velvet Room with merciless force. "You may find it useful."

"I'd rather die again," Goro said, then emerged back into reality.

* * *

Goro did not get a chance to sacrifice Rahu the next day. The Shadow Operatives were requested to accompany Raidou Kuzunoha the XLV on an emergency mission at five in the morning. Not many operatives were awake and alert enough to go demon hunting at so early an hour, but Goro was unfortunate enough to be one of them. Ren was another, having been conditioned to early mornings thanks to his opening shifts at Leblanc. Futaba was yet another, although that was less due to her being a morning person and more because she hadn't slept at all.

"It's cool," she said as she jittered in place in the limousine, holding a half-empty can of some radioactive looking energy drink. "I usually don't start feeling sleepy until 8 anyway."

She was the only dedicated navigator going with them. Mitsuru Kirijo was tagging along, but she was part of their front line forces. Goro could, in a pinch, but his range was pathetic. Besides the four of them, Makoto Nijima, Yu Narukami, Naoto Shirogane, Akihiko Sanada, Aigis, and Labrys were also part of the force. 

"You know Raidou's leading the mission, right?" Ren asked.

Futaba went still, but there was a glint of determination in her eyes. "They don't scare me. Besides, I'm not navigating for them, I'm navigating for you guys. The Kuzunohas can suck it."

When they got as far as they could and piled out of the limo, there was already an assembly of guards standing in front of a cordoned off area. Goro eyed their guns as Mitsuru introduced herself, but much to everyone's relief, they were let through without further question. 

The target was located in the center of a business district, and it was the tallest skyrise in the area. One block into the restricted area, the world shattered into the increasingly familiar sensation of a demon's Domain. The sky was a turbulent swirl of black and purple. The road was a cracked, crumbly trail of scattered bones and ash. Foul tendrils of flesh crawled up the skyscrapers like sickly vines, dripping blinding white ichor to the ground below. The sound of thunder echoed overhead, and the crackling of static electricity in the air made the hairs on Goro's arm stand on end. The scent of something chemical and sterile filled the air, at odds with the nightmarish scene before them, and the scent was so overpowering even his own saliva started to taste like chlorine. 

Ahead of them, the target building shone with malicious light. 

One more step caused his Metaverse outfit to blaze onto his body. Yet another step allowed Goro to see the faint wisps of demonic energy that emanated from the building, undulating and writhing as if in search of something. Hopefully that something wasn't the Shadow Operatives. 

"This place gives me the creeps," Oracle muttered, and Goro realized this was her time in a demon's Domain.

Kirijo turned to her. "Sakura, will you be all right? If this is too much for you, know there is no shame in turning back."

Oracle shook her head with such force her goggles threatened to slip off her face. "No, it's fine! I'm totally fine," she said, words coming out too fast to be true. "Can't be afraid of demons forever, right? Besides, you guys need a navigator, and I need experience! Win-win! And what am I going to do if I go back, anyway? Those guys with the guns didn't look like fun at all."

"Aww, Futaba-chan," Labrys said, "you don't have to worry about a thing. I'll keep ya safe, and if things really start gettin' hairy, I'll turn on my thrusters and fly ya outta here."

Oracle clasped her hands together. "Labrys, you're my favorite robot friend. No offense, Aigis."

"None taken, Sakura-san."

When they arrived at the skyrise, both Raidou Kuzunoha the XLV and Cricket were waiting for them. Raidou, adorned with their usual cloak and hat, leaned against a motorcycle with their eyes closed and head down. Behind them, their Alraune giggled to herself as she wove fresh flowers into their braid. Gouto-Douji was curled up on the seat, seemingly asleep. Cricket stood next to the front of the bike, one hand on the handles while the other held a book.

Raidou and Cricket, in perfect sync, looked up when the Shadow Operatives approached.

"Good to see you all," Raidou said, voice pitched high and feminine. Her smile conveyed an impressive amount of disdain for something so faint. "I wasn't sure how many of you would actually show this early, but it doesn't surprise me to see you here, Kirijo-san. Here to micromanage?"

Kirijo's tone was glacial. "No. I am part of the fighting force. I have no right to lead if I cannot pull my own weight."

Raidou kept her gaze on Kirijo for only half a second more before she turned away from them, her faint smile fading away to nothing and showing only the right side of her face, where her eye was covered by her hair. "Huh. I can respect that."

There was a beat before they turned to face everyone, smile back on her face and wider than before. "Now, if my eyes don't deceive me, is the young hacking prodigy cowering behind someone?"

Oracle was indeed cowering behind Joker. Her knees buckled and she squeaked when Raidou addressed her, but Oracle stuck her head out from behind Joker's back anyway.

"Y-yeah! It's m-me! See? I wasn't scared by that demon at all!"

Raidou's smile widened into something borderline offensive. She leaned forward and laughed, petals falling out of her hair with each shake of her body. Behind her, the Alraune tsked and swept the braid back, cradling it in between her bloodless hands.

"Oh? Then I hope nothing happens to you today that would make you afraid of demons. I won't be able to babysit, you know."

Joker's voice was an icepick piercing through Raidou's laughter. He reached back and let Oracle grip his forearm with a shaky hold. "The mission, Kuzunoha? Or did you call us out here for nothing?"

Raidou straightened, still chuckling, her hand over mouth and doing nothing to hide the delighted grin smeared across her face. She observed them all for a second more, the eye that was visible crinkled into a mocking crescent, before she dropped her hand and all signs of emotion.

"There is a powerful entity located on the top floor," she said. Her tone was business-like, not even a hint of mockery in her words, and her face was empty. "Cricket and I came to eliminate it last night, but we lacked critical information and failed. It can recover its health and restore itself from near death thanks to four demons that serve under it. The other four demons are located throughout the building, and until we defeat them all, the entity at the top is effectively immortal.

"We have requested the assistance of the Shadow Operatives to defeat the demons. In addition to being able to provide healing to the entity from afar, the four demons are also capable of reviving each other."

"In other words," Kirijo said, "we need to not only split up into four teams, but also defeat all four demons at exactly the same time."

"No, you need not defeat them all at exactly the same time. From our attempt last night, each demon needs to be physically present at the location of another demon's destruction in order to revive them. So long as you can keep them apart, they should not be able to revive one another."

"That's not too bad," Narukami said, but Raidou shook her head.

"Unfortunately, the entity on the top floor is also capable of reviving its minions, and it is capable of doing so without moving from its location. If it is engaged in combat, however, it should be unable to focus on anything else. Therefore, you will need to defeat the four demons at the same time we are engaged with the entity. I don't know if the four will be able to restore its health while you fight, but let us assume the worst."

Kirijo crossed her arms and looked up to the top floor. "To summarize, the Shadow Operatives will be dealing with four demons while you are fighting at the top floor. We cannot let the four draw close to another, and we must defeat them as quickly as possible once you begin your battle."

"Correct. The power is out in the building, although the emergency lights are still on. This means Cricket and I will have to climb all forty-five flights of stairs before we can begin our fight."

Goro winced internally. Several other people winced externally.

"Do not feel obligated to hurry for our sake. Now, Cricket should be able to sense the relative locations of each of the four demons, so I shall let him—"

"No need," Oracle said, and she projected a hologram between Raidou and the Shadow Operatives with a wave of her hand. "I've already downloaded the floor plans for this place _and_ scanned it for demons. I know exactly where those four are and how they're moving. He can keep his intel to himself."

Through the glowing green screen of Oracle's hologram, Goro saw a crack in Raidou's blank façade. The corners of her mouth twitched, and there was a gleam in her uncovered eye that was not caused by the light of Oracle's screen. Both signs vanished after a blink.

"Very well. Are there any questions before we begin?"

"Yes," Shirogane said. "What sort of demons are we fighting?"

Silence. And then Raidou's mask fell away entirely. Lit by the green light of Oracle's projection, Raidou's smile was unnaturally cruel.

"Angels. We're going after and slaying the emissaries of God."

* * *

"Raidou never referred to their opponent as a demon," Shirogane said over the comm lines as Goro and Joker rushed up the stairs to the 20th floor.

"Sure didn't," Oracle replied. "She just referred to it as an 'entity' over and over again. Oh! Kirijo-san, you're getting close. The demon's in a room at the end of the hallway. It's not moving, so you and Aigis should be good to go on standby."

"Thank you, Sakura," Kirijo said, and Oracle let out a delighted cackle over the line. "I am concerned with Kuzunoha's phrasing. If angels can be referred to as demons, then what sort of creature must wait at the top for it to be called an 'entity' instead?"

"Makes me think it isn't a demon at all," said Sanada. "People could be considered entities; maybe the target's a human being. Ugh, sorry for getting us off topic, but it's pitch dark down here. Looks like the emergency lights don't reach the basement. Niijima and I are using our phones, but she's, uh—"

"I am absolutely fine!" Queen shouted. "I-I'm not bothered by the dark at all!"

There was an awkward silence as Goro and Joker reached the 15th floor. His thighs were burning.

"Are you sure?" Sanada asked. "I don't mind luring out the demon to the ground floor and having us fight it there."

"You don't need to put yourself at risk for me. I won't slow you down. B-Besides, our opponents are angels, not ghosts, so I have nothing to be afraid of."

"Technically speaking," Goro said as they trudged onward to the 16th floor, "aren't angels the spirits of the deceased? Aren't they all ghosts?"

Queen didn't reply, but plenty of others did.

"Akechi," said Kirijo.

"Come on, Akechi," Sanada said.

"That is not entirely correct," said Aigis.

"Would it kill you to not be such a dickhead for once in your life," Oracle muttered.

Goro froze, one leg on the landing between the 16th and 17th floor, Oracle's comment echoing in his brain. Dickhead. Rahu. He didn't get a chance to fuse it away. Shit.

Joker also stopped, halfway up the next flight of stairs, and turned back. Backlit by the red emergency light above the door to the 17th floor, Joker was a devastating fallen angel of omen. His chest rose and fell from going up 17 floors at top speed. Beads of sweat glistened across his brow, one rolling tantalizingly down his forehead until it vanished beneath his mask. His gray eyes were dark from the angle and their surroundings, and they peered at Goro with open concern.

"Crow?" Joker asked, his smooth voice doing terrible things to Goro's body and mind. They were on a mission. Goro needed to focus, damn it. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Goro said. He stepped onto the landing and ignored the burn in both his lungs and thighs. "Come on. We've got only three floors left."

They just made it to the 18th floor when Narukami and Shirogane spoke, informing everyone they were waiting in the stairwell on the opposite side of the building, ready to ambush the demon next to the emergency exit on the 13th floor. Goro and Joker looked at one another, then wordlessly pushed themselves through the last two floors at top speed. They leaned on the door to the 20th floor once they arrived and spent a minute catching their breath.

"We're on the 20th floor. Oracle, where's our target?" Joker asked in a half-wheeze. He tugged at the collar of his vest, and Goro zoomed in on his neck and the sweat shimmering on the skin. He wanted to lick it. He wanted to stop thinking with his dick more. That brought up thoughts of Rahu, which was enough of a deterrent to get his mind back to the mission.

"Just chilling near the middle of the floor. Looks like the room's an open office. No obstacles in your way except for some furniture and a bunch of fodder, but it shouldn't be a problem for you and Dickhead!"

"Would you stop," Goro said as Rahu stirred in his soul.

"Why? Don't tell me you can't take a nickname, Buttface."

That wasn't any better, but at least it didn't remind Goro of the abomination living in his mind. "Just tell us if the Kuzunohas are close to their target."

"They're on the fortieth— No, sorry, forty-first floor. We don't have much time left. Get into position, you two!"

"Not even time for a break," Joker said. 

"What," Goro said, giving him a smirk even as his lungs threatened to collapse from exhaustion, "are you done already? We haven't even gotten to the good part."

Joker smoldered at him as he let go of his collar. "For you, Crow, I could keep going all day. Maybe we should refamiliarize you with my stamina."

"Oh?" Goro purred, and he leaned towards Joker. "You think you can last longer than I do?"

"Hey, I'm still here," said Oracle.

"So am I," said Narukami. 

"So are all of us," said Shirogane.

"Everyone, please," Kirijo said in a tone of voice that suggested she was not above pulling Goro in for another humiliating lecture on appropriate workplace behavior. "Please focus on the mission."

Goro opened the door and stepped into a horde of Virtues.

The angels, unsurprisingly, were easy pickings. They were all weak to Curse and even more susceptible to instant death. Joker summoned Alice and kept her out, and Goro barely had to do a thing. He merely stood on the side, pointing at various enemies in their way, and Alice decimated the angelic hordes in a brutal and cuddly cloud of decapitated heads, stuffed animals, white porcelain viscera, and cheerful giggles. With each slain angel, the sterile, chemical smell would increase, and the steam produced from the bodies sizzling into light were concentrated with the scent. Neither he nor Joker enjoyed the phenomenon, but Alice was delighted by it, clapping her hands with glee and wafting the steam towards herself for a better smell.

Goro remembered the embodiment of sociopathic, childish glee was forged from the bond between Ren and his physician. Goro made a mental note to do more research on what, exactly, his physician was like.

They found the office after a few minutes of indiscriminate slaughter. The angel was a garish collection of neon pink wings wrapped around what Goro hoped was a torso. Two arms emerged from the feathery mass, skin a bright electric blue, and the joints were like those of a doll. The head was also the same blue, and its hair was off-white and shaped like a pointed brush. The thing hovered several feet off the ground, and the tip of its hair touched the top of the ceiling. It was still and had its eyes closed.

Goro and Joker crouched behind a large potted plant near the doorway. The plant looked like it hadn't been watered for days, and it seemed unlikely it would survive the tumorous white tendrils that were squirming around its branches and piercing its trunk.

"We're in position," Joker said.

"Okay, that's everyone!" Oracle tsked. "Looks like Raidou, Cricket, and the cat are already at the top floor, and they're right where the massive reading is. They said we'd all know when they'd start the fight, but I'm not sure if—" 

Goro harbored no delusions about having destroyed every angel on the floor, nevermind the majority of them, but Joker and Alice had vaporized every single one they came across. It was still a surprise when the remaining angels on the floor broke out into song, the heavenly choir resonating with enough voices to make Goro feel as if an entire stadium's worth of people had been packed into the same floor. The angels sang in a sweet, sonorous soprano, but despite the harmony, the volume and resonance laid layer upon layer of tension into the air.

The singing became a physical thing, growing heavy as the notes held out far longer than any human would be capable of. The voices thickened the air. The vibrato shook the floors, the walls, and the plant they were using as cover. The lumps on the white, parasitic tendril digging into the plant swelled into meaty pustules, then burst. Pus oozed out of the wounds, and every leaf the pus sprayed onto withered away into dry, dead husks.

The medicinal smell that permeated everything in the Domain grew stronger, so strong it burned Goro's sinuses and lungs. The singing grew louder and higher, and the notes were held longer and longer until it became nothing more than a scream.

The entire Domain shook, and all the screaming ceased at once.

"Go! Go, go, gogogo!" Oracle shouted. "Everyone, launch your attacks! The Kuzunohas have already begun!"

Goro and Joker leapt out from behind the desiccated plant, but before either of them could launch a surprise attack, the fluorescent highlighter angel unleashed an arc of torrential lightning through the area. The lightning struck them both directly and threw them against the walls. The electric shock made Goro's muscles seize before twitching compulsively, and the impact of his body slamming against the wall beat the air out of his lungs as he crumpled to the ground.

"Shit," he said before summoning Kinmamon and casting Mediarama. "How the hell did this thing ambush us?"

The angel's wings shifted, the ruffling of its feathers sounding like the crinkling of stiff plastic. "Children of man," it said, the pitch of its voice modulating between high and low. Its voice bypassed their ears to project the sound directly into their bodies, and the vibrations pulsed through their organs, "I am Aniel. Put away your weapons and surrender, and you may yet still receive His benevolence and love."

"Sorry," Joker said as he pushed himself up. His steel eyes glinted like a well sharpened blade beneath his mask. "I've never had a good track record with Gods."

There was a sizzle in the air. The smell of ozone and melted plastic almost overpowered the sterile, medicinal smell of the Domain. It made sense when Goro surveyed the room after the Maziodyne hit. The spell had blasted apart the desk. Singed papers were scattered all across the floor. Bubbling puddles of melted plastic hissed and screamed as rancid smoke wafted off the surface. The chairs were overturned and in pieces. The computers that hadn't melted flickered with blue error screens, the consoles sparking from the power of the spell.

Aniel's head and arms remained still, but the feathers on its myriad wings fluttered like a soft flan left on top of a running washing machine.

"I see," it said, pitch modulating in rhythm to the vibrations of its feathers. "Your souls have indeed been stained by the touch of traitors and rebels to His will. Words and warnings shall accomplish nothing here today. For the sake of His Millennium Kingdom, I shall condemn you both to the agony of oblivion!"

They barely had time to guard before two swirling vortexes of ofudas and light surrounded them. Goro's blood froze. Kinmamon nullified Bless, but Joker had been using Alice. Goro had no idea if the idiot fused one that had a way to cover up her weakness— 

His body moved before his mind could finish the thought. He kicked Joker out of the vortex just in time. The ofudas crashed harmlessly against his body as Joker collided with the remains of a chair.

"Idiot!" 

Joker leapt to his feet. "She has Null Bless. Did you think I wasn't going to cover her weakness?"

"Considering your lack of common sense in other areas, yes!"

"Lack of— Like what?"

"The cat litter."

"I was trying to be considerate."

"Never remembering to lock the door."

"That happened once. And Futaba didn't even see much."

Oracle screamed. "I had just managed to forget that ever happened! Now I'm going to have to bleach my brain all over again!"

Goro ignored her. "Your pathetic, one-sided rivalry with Narukami over Morgana."

"Wait," Narukami said, "we're rivals?"

"We're not rivals," said Joker. "You don't need to be jealous."

_"I'm not jealous!"_

Narukami's tone managed to be flat and uneasy at the same time. "I didn't mean to be a homewrecker."

"Can someone put these two on their own comm line?" Sanada asked. "Again?"

"Dickhead can totally navigate by himself. Maybe I'll just cut them off from everyone else."

Rahu battered against the walls of Goro's heart. Goro tried not to think about what Rahu was battering them with. "Stop calling me that."

Whatever Oracle responded with was lost to Goro as Aniel cast a Magarudyne that lifted both him and Joker up. Aniel threw them against a wall, along with what felt like half of the furniture in the room.

"Hey, man," Rahu said as pieces of splintered wood fell onto Goro's body, "you're lookin' a little beat up. I'm real good at makin' people hurt themselves. Why not whip me out?"

Of course the dickhead was chatty. Just his luck.

Joker tossed a piece of desk off himself before summoning Alice. She curtsied and giggled as tendrils of darkness swirled up Aniel's form. The angel let out a shrill cry as the Eigaon enveloped it, then fell to the ground with wings askew. 

Both Goro and Joker were still half-buried in the debris, so it wasn't possible to launch an All-Out Attack. That didn't mean Goro couldn't do something to the downed enemy before him, though.

"Hereward," he called, shoving Rahu into a corner of his heart, "Rebellion Blade!"

The phantom blade severed one of Aniel's wings. White, luminous blood oozed out from the wound, and the wing flapped with angry, jerking motions on the ground before it dissolved into light.

"Fallen ones," Aniel said as it hovered once again, voice as hot and furious as the sun, "you will pay dearly for your transgressions."

Goro kicked away a half-melted keyboard and the remains of a filing cabinet. "Let's see you try it before I rip out every single one of your wings!"

Aniel volleyed an inferno at them in response.

There was no opportunity to guard, no place for them to dodge, and no chance for them to switch Personas. Goro could do nothing but take the hit. The flames seared his flesh, melted the latex of his bodysuit until adhered, half-molten, onto his skin. His numerous belt buckles conducted the heat and cooked past suit and skin. It took all he had to remain standing.

His pain tolerance ran out as the flames receded, and Goro fell to one knee and bit back the scream that wanted to tear out of his throat. He couldn't pull himself together enough to heal, but Joker took care of it for them both with a Mediarahan.

"Something's wrong," Oracle said as Joker helped Goro to his feet. "This thing's way stronger than the others."

Joker wrapped an arm around Goro's waist and grimaced. "Yeah. That's why we went after it."

There was fear in Oracle's voice. "No, you don't get it! This thing is _exponentially_ stronger than the other three demons! You two need to escape! It can—"

Aniel opened its eyes, and Goro couldn't move.

He couldn't move. No part of him could move. Not his limbs. Not his lungs. Not even, to his horror, his heart. He and Joker were completely paralyzed, unable to even move out of the half-embrace they were in. Goro couldn't even turn his head to look at Joker, and the only thing he could focus on were Aniel's beastly eyes.

Well, if he died, at least this time it would be in the arms of someone he loved.

Fortunately, the effects of Aniel's paralysis wore off after a second. Unfortunately, it wore off just in time for Aniel to close its eyes and hit them both with a Mafreidyne. His body faltered as the nuclear reaction hit him so soon after a shutdown of nearly all bodily functions, and both he and Joker collapsed like a blanket fort gone wrong. It felt like his skin was bubbling and boiling his muscles and bones. The pain whited out his vision.

Oracle's cry was dim static to his brain. "No! I can't— I can't do anything where I am! Please, you two have to retreat!"

Other voices joined Oracle's on the comm line, their questions frantic and concerned. Goro tuned them out in favor of switching to Yatagarasu in order to heal. He and Joker rose to their feet just in time for Aniel to cast Magarudyne again. Goro grabbed Joker and shoved him behind him to tank the hit, but even with Yatagarsu's innate resistance, the spell hurt more than Goro liked.

"Amamiya, Akechi, retreat! This is an order," Kirijo said. "Any team who finishes their battle, head to the 20th floor and provide assistance!" 

"We're getting out of here," Joker said, pulling Goro towards the doorway. They hadn't even taken two steps before Aniel opened its eyes again, and the full body paralysis seized control.

"How is it doing this?!" Oracle said, voice in hysterics. "You guys need to go on the defensive! It knows attacks of every element except Curse, and it gives itself extra turns while stunning you both any time it wants! Please, do whatever it takes to survive! Labrys is going to bring me up to give you better support!"

Aniel's next attack was mercifully another Mahamaon, which did nothing to either of them. As soon as they had control over their bodies, they both tried to run towards the door. However, the strain of not having working organs for a second made them slow and clumsy. 

Aniel's voice felt like a serrated blade trying to hack itself out from the inside of Goro's body. "Fallen Ones, there is no escape from your punishment. For the sin of rebellion, I shall carry out your judgement in accordance with His will!"

Aniel summoned a blizzard, and Goro went down. 

"Crow!" he heard Joker yell, and when Goro looked up from his prone position on the ground, he saw Joker's face looking down at him. Open concern was etched into Joker's features even as his teeth chattered, and icicles hung from the tips of his hair. Something had grazed his cheek, and the line of blood that welled from the wound was frozen solid.

"Hey, man," Rahu said as Joker cast another Mediarahan, "you sure you don't wanna expose me? I mean, I can't shield ya both, but if you can't be hurt, then you could at least haul your boyfriend outta here and heal him up."

It would be a pleasant, cheery day in hell before Goro was going to summon Rahu, even if the dickhead had a point.

Goro managed to push himself up into a sitting position, grabbing onto Joker's offered hand, when Aniel cast its next spell. He watched in horror as a large, churning ball of water swelled between them, then burst. In the millisecond between the sphere of water losing its shape and it surging towards them, Goro remembered that Joker had no means of resisting Water.

His body decided without input that even hell could have nice days.

Goro yanked Joker down by the hand and pulled him towards his chest before he curled around him and pressed him to the ground. He cradled Joker as tightly as he could and switched over to Rahu as the torrent swallowed them.

Or, rather, as the torrent _tried_ to swallow them.

The wave tried to consume them, but a protective shield caused it to recoil. The water rushed backwards and blasted Aniel instead. The angel let out an enraged scream as it was struck with its own attack, and Joker wrapped his arms around Goro's shoulder and tried to turn them both over.

"You managed to get a Persona that reflects _Water_?"

"Keep your limbs and head down, you idiot!"

Joker kissed the side of Goro's mask before shouting over his ear. "Alice! Eigaon!"

Aniel screamed again, its voice imparting the sensation of insects trying to eat their way out of his body.

"We can't launch an All-Out Attack if you don't stop cuddling me," Joker said as he squirmed in Goro's arms.

Goro held him tighter. "We won't need to if I can reflect everything he casts back at us."

Joker stopped squirming. "What kind of Persona do you have?"

Goro tried not to hurt Joker with how hard he was squeezing. "You don't want to know."

"You can't say that and expect me to be less curious."

"You really don't want to know."

Aniel cast a Psi attack, but it bounced back. Goro dared to turn his head back to see the damage done. One of Aniel's wings was barely holding on by a gossamer thread of ligament, and the wing was sweeping the ground as Aniel thrashed in pain. Goro smiled and turned back to Joker, who was trying to peek over his shoulder, and shoved his head down.

"Wait," Oracle said, and Goro hated how teary she sounded. "Are you guys taking care of it?"

"Crow's got a mysterious Persona that can reflect everything."

Oracle sniffed. It was disturbingly wet. "Seriously?"

"He won't tell me what kind it is."

Goro waited for the Maragidyne to fade and Aniel to start screaming again before he grabbed Joker by the lapels, turned them both to the side, and shook him.

"We were both about to die, you imbecile! Stop thinking about my Persona and start thinking about how you can survive!"

Joker scooted back to avoid spearing himself on Goro's mask, but he was smiling as they grappled on the floor. "You're doing a great job of that for both of us."

Goro would have shaken him harder, but Aniel decided to cast another Maziodyne. He rolled them both over again, and the spell bounced harmlessly off Goro and harmlessly hit Aniel. Aniel took advantage of this by casting a non-stop barrage of Maziodynes.

"Joker, Crow," Queen said, "Sanada-san and I have defeated our demon. We're coming to back you up!"

"We were doing pretty well thanks to Goro's unknown Persona." Joker's mouth was pressed against the junction of Goro's neck and shoulder, and Goro felt the words more than he heard them over the crackling of lightning around them. "Our target is using an element it's immune to, so we're a little stuck, but we aren't taking any damage either."

"Please tell me," Goro grumbled as the barrage of spells continued, "that you have something with Null Elec or better."

Joker remained silent for a second. "I've got Barong, but it has a Wind weakness. We're going to have to be lucky if we want to make a break for it."

Goro snorted. "As if you aren't the luckiest person here. On the count of three?"

"One."

"Two."

"Three," they said at once as they separated and leapt to their feet as quickly as they could. They bolted towards the door, Joker at the lead, when their luck ran out. The storm of bolts stopped. Goro was alerted to the Magarudyne only by a shredded piece of paper fluttering by them. He watched it float by in slow motion, then his body acted on instinct as he threw himself over Joker. They crashed to the floor just as the winds tried to slash at them, and Goro heard Joker grunt in pain as his face hit the ground.

As soon as the gusts bounced back, Goro heaved himself up enough to turn Joker over and shove him closer to the doorway. It was nowhere enough to get him out of the room, but he was a few inches closer. Goro crawled back on top of Joker just in time to reflect a Mabufudyne. He plastered himself across Joker's body so that as little was exposed as possible. It wasn't comfortable, especially since he had to hold his head at an awkward angle to prevent stabbing Joker with his mask, but it got the job done.

"Not that I don't love having you on top of me," Joker said as the floor around them frosted over, "but could you be gentler next time?"

Goro scowled as Aniel screamed. The scream felt like a red hot saw slicing him in half. "Shut up. I know you like it rough, so— Are you really trying to feel me up right now?"

Joker's face was the picture of shameless indulgence. "You're on top of me. It's a reflex."

"What is happening," Oracle said, voice back in hysterics. "One minute I think you two are gonna die, and the next I have to listen to Joker grope Dickhead—" 

"Stop calling me that!"

"—while I'm trying not to screw anything up! Are you two always like this on missions?!"

"While the sample size is small, Sakura-san," Aigis said over the sound of heavy artillery, "the current evidence points to yes."

"Maybe I will ban them from going on the same missions together," Kirijo said.

Goro made a face in response, as did Joker. Aniel casted Maziodyne, and Goro cocked his head back in hopes that it would chain cast Electric spells once more. He met with Aniel's open, deranged eyes and turned back to Joker as the lightning vanished and a nuclear explosion erupted overhead before bouncing back with a comical, rubbery sound.

"I'm impressed the walls are holding up to this," Joker said conversationally. Goro had to hold himself back from headbutting him.

"Stop making stupid observations. You're breaking my concentration."

"Your concentration on what? You're not doing anything other than laying on top of me."

"I'm concentrating on not rolling off you and leaving!"

Goro shouted the last few words, since Aniel chose that moment to cast Mamagnadyne, and the sound of a pillar of earth attempting but failing to flatten their bodies drowned out his voice.

Aniel's wrecked roar of pain was a welcome balm to Goro's soul, even as the sound made him feel like his organs were being liquified.

"Wretched servants of sin," it cried, and each word it spoke was a hundred knives lacerating their bodies, "how dare you mock a servant of the Lord! There shall be no salvation for you, for the devil has found you and resides in you. Your souls, forever tainted, shall be tormented in the eternal flames of—"

"I wish it'd stop talking and kill itself faster," Joker said. Goro pushed himself up on shaking hands and knees and scowled down.

"Hurry up and get out of here while it's monologuing!" 

Joker flipped himself over and half-crawled, half-scampered his way out. Goro followed after him, and this time they actually made it to the door frame before Aniel stopped pontificating and noticed them. It responded by casting Maragidyne, but all Goro had to do was stand in front of the door frame to keep Joker safe.

The walls were holding up well indeed.

"I think we're good," Joker said over comms. "I'm out of the room, and Goro's blocking the doorway. The walls here are really strong."

"Seriously!?" Oracle said. "We're already on the 13th floor!"

Queen sounded completely out of breath when she spoke. "I'm...on the 9th... Sanada-san is a floor...above me."

"Woah, Queen, are you two really running up the stairs? Hardcore!"

"Can't slow down if our comrades are in danger," Sanada said, and he barely sounded winded at all. "Although if they've managed to be safe, then we can take a breather, Niijima. You look—"

The rest of Sanada's sentence was drowned out by Aniel's scream of fury. Its scream spoke of madness forged at the ends of the universe, where time and history and matter and memory were compacted into a singular bit of data that punctured through space-time in order to claw its way out of Aniel's torn, bleeding throat. An eternity of torment was compressed into that sound, and all of Rahu's defenses could not stop the sound from manifesting in Goro's brain.

A crawling, writhing mass squirmed through his gray matter. It wriggled its way through the folds in his brain, tunneled through the synapses and pathways like an earthworm through wet loam, caused his vision to white out, and seized his muscles. It crawled down, dragging its undulating tendrils down to his face, bulging the skin and filling his sinus cavity with its wretched form. It brushed against the back of his eyes. It breached the space between skin and fat, between fat and muscle, and between muscle and bone. It ripped them apart, pulled them in towards itself like it was going to feed. 

Goro could feel the fatty, gelatinous matter of his own brain slide down his throat. Could smell the chemical, sterile scent of the mass mix with the sharp iron tang of blood. Could see his vision blur and then black out as the tendrils punctured his eyes. Could feel it squirming and pulling and thrashing between his skin and _none of it was real_.

It was just a sound. A sound of a furious angel's scream. An angel that served a hateful God. A God who wanted to see him ruined, broken, defeated, and _he was a Rebel, wasn't he?_

Goro screamed, and he came back to himself. Came back to himself on his hands and knees, sweat dripping down his face, limbs shaking with the burden of keeping himself up. His head was whole. Intact. Unharmed. 

Aniel stopped screaming, and Goro looked up just in time to see it cast another Maziodyne. Right. Aniel. Aniel, who was back to spamming Maziodyne, probably because it was down to three wings, one of them broken and cut in half, bleeding out the luminous white blood of angels. Its monstrous eyes were wide open and glaring at Goro with contempt. Goro ignored it and stood on trembling legs, gripping the door frame for support, and turned his head back to check on Joker.

Joker knelt on the ground with his head clutched in his hands. Goro turned his back on Aniel and reached out.

"Hey! Are you okay? Snap out of it!"

"I," Joker began. He shook his head. "Where am I...? What am I doing here?"

Oh, _fuck_.

"Joker can't remember anything, least of all his Persona. I'll slap him out of it. Oracle, don't panic if you see his health go down."

"Too late," Oracle said, sounding like she was in the middle of a panic attack. "What was that screaming? I felt like I didn't have a body for a while."

"You've got a body and I'm keepin' it safe," Labrys said. "Seriously though, what the heck was that? I thought my joints were fallin' apart."

Shirogane sounded shaken. "It appears we cannot underestimate what our enemies are capable of. If Yu and I had not taken our target down seconds before the shrieking began, both of us would have been in mortal peril. Mitsuru-san, how are you and Aigis holding up?"

"I have eliminated the target," Aigis said, sounding more human than Goro had ever heard her. "I was able to push through, but... Ah, Mitsuru-san is fine; she is merely somewhat disturbed."

"My apologies, everyone. Aigis and I will make our way to the 20th floor immediately."

"Take your time, Mitsuru-san," Narukami said. "Naoto and I are on our way up too."

"Sanada-san and I had to stop for a bit," Queen said, panting heavily. "We're good to resume now, though."

"Who are all you people?" Joker mused, dropping his hands to look around in confusion as Aniel continued its Maziodyne fueled assault. "Wait, am I hearing things? Am I having auditory hallucinations?"

It wouldn't take much longer for someone to arrive, but like hell Goro was going to put up with an amnesiac Joker any longer than he had to. He reared back a hand to slap the memory back into Joker's rattled mind when Aniel spoke. Its voice hit the same brain tunneling, face separating, orifice invading sensation its scream had, and Goro faltered. 

"Blasphemers! You shall escape with neither your life nor your soul intact! Come, faithful servants of Heaven! Smite these fools and show them His wrath!"

Pillars of light rained down throughout the open floor plan. When the light receded, hundreds of angelic enemies stood before them, each of them overflowing with divine wrath. The fury of heaven wrapped around their celestial forms as a shroud of light. Their radiance was painful to look upon, and Goro winced as they approached.

"Are they friendly?" Joker asked, shielding his eyes from their light. "They're not friendly."

Fuck.

"E-enemies!" Oracle yelled. "Hundreds of them! Joker, Crow, hang on! Come on, Labrys, we can't dawdle anymore!"

There wasn't any time left to slap Joker back to normal with so many foes converging on them, so Goro threw himself over Joker's body and curled around him as best he could. 

The horde of angels cast an endless chain of spells. Rahu reflected them all, but the vast majority of the spells used were ineffective against their wielders. Goro could keep Joker safe like this until backup arrived, but all it would take was one Almighty spell or status ailment for it to be over.

"Listen, man," Rahu said as a dazzling display of devastation played out around them, "I know you don't wanna pull me out and show me off, but these are pretty bad times, my man. I got Riot Gun. Could clear a lotta these suckers out, ya know?"

"Shut up," Goro hissed.

"I didn't say anything," Joker said, sounding mildly indignant. "You're really attractive under that helmet, but you're also rude."

Fucking— Son of a— Shit.

"I hate you," Goro said.

"Oh. Well, this is awkward."

Goro was going to bash his own head in against the floor. "I don't hate you. We wouldn't be dating if I hated you! You're every—" Goro remembered the comm lines were still open. "Damn it, Ren," he said as he thrust one of his hands into Joker's coat pockets, "where do you keep your Alert Capsules?!"

"Personal space! Although if we're dating, I guess it's not an issue. I hope I compliment your body a lot. You have a very nice one. I like the way your outfit clings to it. I like the way you're holding me against it."

Oracle screeched. "OH MY GOD! We're on the 17th floor! Just shut up for a few minutes!"

"My hallucination is back," Joker said, and then something hit them both with a Megido.

Compared to the elemental spells Aniel had cast, the Megido of a lesser angel was painful in a normal, tolerable way. And that was something Goro would unpack later, assuming he survived, because if _one_ of the angels could cast Megido, then there would be others who could as well.

"If you die," Rahu said, "I'm goin' to go limp too! Come on, man, suck it up! Pride doesn't mean anything if you're dead, and your boyfriend's gonna snuff it too."

"God fucking DAMN IT," Goro yelled.

"How dare you," Aniel raged, "use our Lord's title in vain—"

"Shut the fuck up!" Goro pushed himself to his hands and knees as Joker groaned in pain beneath him. "Rahu! Riot Gun!"

Amidst the still on-going barrage of spells, Rahu manifested. His head rested on a gleaming golden plate, polished to perfection. His six eyes were wide open, each of them focused on a different enemy. A satisfied smile adorned his face. The penis that protruded from his forehead still in erect, rigid magnificence. 

"What the," Joker said right before Rahu shot out his attack.

A golden shower sprayed forth from Rahu's penis. A load of light shot straight up towards the ceiling before it rained back down and penetrated the forms of countless angels. The divine hoard could do nothing to defend themselves against Rahu's mighty emission.

The angels' cries of pain joined together in a loud moan of agony before their bodies disintegrated into white ash. The silence afterward was all consuming and absolute, which was why Oracle's voice nearly caused Goro to puncture Joker's face with his helmet.

"Woah," she said as she and Labrys jogged towards them. "Looks like we weren't really— What is that. Oh my god, what is that?!"

Goro froze. Rahu floated above him like an obscene beacon in the dark.

"Uh, Akechi-kun," Labrys said, carefully not looking at him or Rahu, "I think ya thing's...exposed."

Oracle screamed and grabbed her goggles. "Why?! I need brain bleach, ASAP! Kittens! I need pictures of cute kittens!!"

Goro was so frozen with mortification that he didn't notice Joker shimmying out from under him until he started laughing.

"Is that," Joker said as he lay on his back beneath Goro, eyes wide and body quivering for all the wrong reasons, "your Persona? It's— It's a—"

Joker couldn't finish his statement before he broke out into full blown guffaws. He curled up on his side and clutched his stomach with one hand while the other tried to futilely muffle the sound of his laughter.

Goro stared at Joker for a few seconds, feeling a tide of red wash over his face as Oracle continued to screech. Labrys continued to not look anywhere near him as she made awkward throat-clearing sounds despite not possessing a throat.

Goro banished Rahu and rose into a kneel. "All right, shut up," he said to Joker before slapping him on the leg. It accomplished nothing.

"You've got," Joker managed to get out as he used his hands to make a jerking gesture at his forehead. "It's got—" He cut himself off and snickered. "It _bends backwards_."

"Shut up!"

"It's going to— If it comes, it'll hit—" Joker nearly choked trying to laugh and speak at the same time. "It's going to jizz into its own eyes."

Love was overrated. Goro was going to murder him. 

Before he could devise a way to carry out said murder, Goro heard the deafening crackle of a Maziodyne striking nearby. Right. Aniel was still alive.

"How dare you," Aniel said, voice like a hundred lit cigarettes being put out on his intestines, "taint this holy place with your lewd—"

Joker laughed so hard he punched the ground. "Lewd... Your Persona's lewd...!"

"—mockery and insolent behavior! I shall rend your soul into pieces!"

"Please," Joker said in between trying to take in giant lungfuls of air. "Please make your Persona ejaculate on it and finish it off."

"I will murder you," Goro said.

"With what? Your Persona's monster cock?"

"LALALALA," Oracle screamed. "I am thinking about Mona's cute toe beans!"

"We're on the 20th floor stairwell," Narukami said, "but, uh, should we go in? I'm not sure if we should intrude."

Goro clenched his fists. "No. We've got this under control."

"Yes," said Joker, tears in his eyes and body convulsing from laughter. "You guys have to see this."

Later, Goro would blame what he said on the humiliation he felt; emotions made him stupid. "I am going to divorce you."

Joker stopped laughing and rolled onto his back, eyes wide and staring at Goro with what felt like all of his incredible focus. "We're not married." A pause. "Goro, do you want to marry me?"

The flush of anger turned into one of shock. His body felt hot and cold at the same time. His ears were stuffed with cotton. His jaw was locked in place. He couldn't think. This wasn't— There was no way that Ren was— 

"Sodomites," Aniels screamed, "I shall not be mocked! The light of our Lord is inexhaustible!"

"Read the fucking room!" Goro snapped. 

He barely managed to get the last word out before pillars of light rained down from the ceiling. Again. Hundreds of angels appeared once the light faded. Again. They all started attacking. _Again_.

This time, however, there were a few more complications.

Oracle retreated into her Persona the moment the angels appeared, but the low ceiling prevented her from going very far. Labrys grabbed her axe and went into combat mode, but the overwhelming number of angels was working against her.

Narukami and Shirogane burst onto the floor once Oracle alerted everyone to the enemies, and they tore through the angels that tried to attack them with a barrage of Curse spells. Even so, they were still too far away to help Oracle directly.

The flurry of activity and Oracle's panicked navigation from trying to avoid getting caught by an attack meant that the remaining Shadow Operatives were all paying close attention to what Oracle was broadcasting. A barrage of conversation followed, and the other Operatives began pushing themselves even harder to reach the 20th floor.

Finally, due to Joker wriggling out from under him, Goro was no longer able to successfully shield Joker. Even if he could protect Joker, he wouldn't be able to assist anyone else if he remained on the defensive. Faced with a situation he had no time to process and still overwhelmed with Joker possibly proposing to him, Goro made the split-second decision to summon Rahu again.

Which meant Narukami and Shirogane got a look at Rahu ejaculating on the angels until they died. Which meant Oracle and Labrys got a far closer look at Rahu and how he attacked. Which meant Kirijo, Aigis, Queen, and Sanada got everyone's live reactions.

"Why does it attack like that?!" Oracle said. "A lifetime supply of brain bleach won't be enough!"

"Your Persona looks very healthy," Narukami said.

"Akechi-kun," Labrys said as she cleaved an angel that managed to dodge Rahu's attack in half, "I'm tryin' real hard not to judge, but... I'm kinda judgin'."

"Why are so many people in the organization like this?" Shirogane asked. "Especially the Wild Cards?"

Joker remained on the floor, curled up again and laughing himself sick. "You have a dickhead Persona." He snickered. Goro couldn't tell if he even noticed the second wave of angels. "Oh, God, Oracle called you that—"

"Don't remind me I did that!"

"—and you summoned," Joker paused to snort unsexily, "a Persona with a dick on his head that jizzes to attack!"

Even if Joker had been proposing, Goro decided he was going to turn him down.

"I am never going to save your life again," he said, and Joker laughed harder.

"Do you think you have won?!" Aniel said, and Goro rose to his feet. "The Lord's servants are infinite in number, and He—"

"Shut UP," Goro screamed. He summoned Rahu again and tried to ignore Joker's hysterical cackling. "I'm sick of hearing you speak. Rahu! Riot Gun!"

Aniel, as it turned out, was weak to Pierce.

"It's weak to your dick," Joker said. Goro refrained from kicking him.

Riot Gun destroyed the bisected wing and ripped holes in the remaining two. Aniel fell to the ground as its wings flapped in vain, splattering white gore all over the walls and floor. Its torso was exposed, and the angel was covered with the thick white blood all angels had.

Angel blood, Goro realized as Joker laughed so hard he started coughing, looked far too much like semen.

Joker wheezed and coughed as he tried to speak. "Your Persona came—"

"Finish that sentence and I will dump you."

Joker shut up, but he didn't stop laughing. Goro glared at Aniel as it struggled on the ground. There was no reason to drag this out any longer.

"Hereward," Goro said, and his voice held enough contempt to rival God's love, "Rebellion Blade."

* * *

They all met back together on the 11th floor. It took Joker over five floors to stop laughing, and Goro had to practically carry him down the stairs until Joker calmed down enough to walk on his own. By the time they were reunited with Kirijo and the others, he was back to being composed and unreadable, although Goro could see a spark of amusement lingering in his eyes.

Their report to Kirijo was awkward and stilted, not helped by Joker nearly breaking into laughter twice as they went over how they destroyed Aniel.

"Well," Kirijo said once the report finished, not looking at either of them, "the Kuzunohas told us to leave the Domain once we had completed our mission. Our presence isn't necessary for the completion of their own mission."

"That doesn't sit right me," Oracle said. She pulled up a projection of the top floor. "The massive reading is still there. Are we really gonna leave before it's dealt with?"

Kirijo's expression was troubled. "The Kuzunohas asked us to leave once we were done for the sake of our own safety. Given the struggle against Aniel, whatever they're fighting could be out of our league."

"Maybe if it was just one or two of us," Narukami said, "but are those two stronger than all of us working together?"

Goro crossed his arms and sighed. "Some things are easier to deal with alone. We aren't a small group, and coordinating so many people is already difficult enough even without the Kuzunohas."

Kirijo mirrored his sigh. "Honestly speaking, leaving like this doesn't feel right. But we don't have enough information or experience to make an informed decision. For now, all we can do is follow their orders and at least vacate the building."

Sanada stretched his neck and then punched his palm. "All right. Time for more stairs. Everyone ready?"

He was met with disgruntled faces.

The trip back down passed without much incident, other than an awkward fight with a lost Power around floor 7. Once they sorted out that fight and reorganized their marching order so no one would accidentally be shoved down the stairs, they reached the ground floor without anything else happening.

So of course they ran into a roadblock when they tried to leave the building.

Narukami and Sanada both pulled at the emergency doors while Aigis and Labrys unloaded a barrage of attacks at the automatic glass doors. Neither set of doors would open.

"I'm getting the same reading from the doors as the walls in this place, so they're probably indestructible?" Oracle shrugged. "I can't get a ton of data from them."

Shirogane put a hand on their chin and stared at the main entrance. The wide, double doors were bracketed by large windows. The stygian landscape outside cast the entrance in an uncanny purple light, which felt at odds given the fact that angels created the Domain. "It's unsurprising, given we're in a Domain, but it bodes ill for us that we can't leave. We used the front doors to enter, but it was Raidou Kuzunoha who opened them. Perhaps we need someone with similar powers to open them again?"

Everyone turned to Goro. He scowled.

"Just because I have spiritual power doesn't mean I know how to use it. Besides, they said the same thing about Oracle—" 

"And they said you had way more! Come on, it's a door. You're not gonna be intimidated by a door, right?"

He gave her a flat look, but Oracle's expression was inscrutable beneath her goggles. He sighed and trudged over to the entrance. 

Halfway there, an unearthly cry ruptured through his body. It verberated and tore through every limb, every organ, every cell he possessed until it rendered his mass into jelly, sliding down the framework of his skeleton before his bones, too, liquified.

The Domain shook, and the violent purple sky outside flashed white.

When he came back to himself, Goro found himself sprawled out on the ground. The others, when he managed to push himself up and looked around, fared no better. 

Sanada rose to his feet at the same time as Kirijo, and he panted with exertion for the first time since they arrived. "What the hell was that?"

Joker was crouched on the ground, poker face on and giving nothing away. That told Goro everything. "Aniel was able to manifest sounds from the inside of our bodies, and it caused us physical pain when it spoke. If the Kuzunohas are fighting an angel, it could have been that."

Oracle was still flat on the ground when she pulled up a projection of the top floor. "The massive energy reading...isn't gone, but it's also not there anymore," she said with a shaky voice. "I don't understand what's happening... It's there but it's not?"

"Either way," Shirogane said, slowly rising as they braced themselves on a wall, "we ought to leave. It's possible this might happen again."

Goro was already on his way to the doors as Shirogane spoke. When he arrived, the doors were still closed, and no amount of trying to pry them open worked. He pounded on the glass with a fist. Nothing. He kicked the door. They didn't even rattle. Goro summoned Loki, and even a Laevatein did nothing to them.

He glared at the doors for a second as everyone gathered themselves. "I'm trying the back doors," he said, and then turned around and headed to the stairwell they had just left. 

The Shadow Operatives followed after him, and they were only a few feet away from the stairwell entrance when something made an impact with enough force to cause the floor to shake. Everyone braced themselves for combat when the stairwell door flew open.

Raidou Kuzunoha lowered her leg and looked around. "What are you all doing here," she asked, adjusting the body she slung over one shoulder. "None of you needed to stick around when you finished. Leave."

"We can't," Narukami said. "The doors won't open."

Raidou gave him a blank look before she adjusted the body to carry it in her arms. "Fuck," she said. "I forgot about that. Give me a second and I'll see what can be done."

With the body in her arms, it was easier to see what it looked like. The upper part of the body was wrapped in Raidou's cloak, but everything from the chest down was visible. The skin of the body was green, and two magnificent white and green wings hung limp and broken from the back. The angel had a golden chestplate that extended to the waist, and the rest of its form was swathed in silky fabrics of white and red.

Raidou herself looked disheveled. Her hat was askew, her clothes were splattered with angelic blood, a part of her white button down was soaked through with red human blood, and her bandolier was scratched up to hell. "Hey, Gouto, Cricket! Get down here already!"

The sound of skittering came down the stairs and echoed through the ground floor. From the stairs, a monstrous form descended, each of its segmented legs clicking and clacking against the metal steps. It was large enough to take up the entire staircase by itself, and Goro boggled at the creature once it fully came into view.

The thing was a muted green all throughout. It had numerous, squirming tails the length of a grown person's torso. They lashed and writhed like angry snakes, except the tails bore no scales and were smooth and fleshy all the way through. Upon closer inspection, each of the tails had a mouth on the end, and some of them snapped on thin air as drool trickled down their length.

There was an insect's thorax connecting the tails to the human torso and head. It was green like the rest of it, covered in a plated exoskeleton. Three pairs of insect legs bracketed the chitinous midsection, each of them ending on a sharp point. The human torso that sat above the thorax was well sculpted and completely bare. Save for the green flesh, the torso could have easily been mistaken for human. The head of the creature was alarmingly familiar, but that was not the most unsettling thing about the human portion of Cricket's body.

No, what was alarming was what Cricket held in his hands. In one hand, he gripped a sword with barely congealed blood staining its edge. In the other, he gripped a decapitated head by its long, blue hair. The head's flesh was the same bright green as the body Raidou carried. The face was feminine, and the expression was peaceful and serene despite the serrated, severed skin hanging in tatters off the neck.

"Oh, right," Raidou said as she hefted the body over her other shoulder. "None of you have seen Cricket when he's not trying to pass for human, huh?"

His red eyes were far more intimidating in this form. "My apologies if you find me unsettling," he said to the Shadow Operatives, "but I humbly request you get over it."

Gouto-Douji leapt off Cricket's thorax and padded towards Goro, whiskers twitching and tail lashing. "Why are you all still here?" He sat and gave Goro an exasperated look that Morgana would have been envious of. "Didn't we tell you to leave when you were done?"

"We can't leave. The doors won't open," Goro said, and the cat had the nerve to look shocked.

"You can't open the doors? What do you mean? I can open the doors! You've got enough magic to rival _Raidou_ , and you can't open the doors?!"

"Gouto-Douji," Raidou said.

"I don't know how to use any of it," Goro said, and Gouto-Douji's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Weren't you supposed to be taking lessons?"

"I declined."

"Why would you decline?!"

"Because I told him he could," Raidou snapped. "Now, Gouto, instead of meowing like you haven't been fed in days, why don't you open the doors before this thing wakes up and fucks us over even more?"

Gouto-Douji thumped the ground with his tail. "You and I are going to have a talk after this, Raidou. And you," he pointed a paw at Goro, "are going to tell your boss that your training is mandatory. No one should be running around with that much power unchecked."

Goro tried not to grind his teeth as Gouto-Douji trotted towards the entrance. Kirijo turned to him as the cat passed by.

"What did he say?"

"He's going to open the doors for us." Goro paused. "And he told me to tell you that the Kuzunohas' requests to train me are no longer a request, but a demand."

"Must you make everything sound worse than it is?" Raidou said. She rolled her eyes and nearly tossed the body off her shoulder with her gestures. "Are you trying to make us sound devious on purpose?"

"He doesn't need to when you're around," Oracle muttered. Goro wasn't able to tell if Raidou heard or not because at that moment, the torso over her shoulder suddenly stirred to life and kicked her away.

"I am the archangel Gabriel." The decapitated head hovered in the air as Cricket tried to maintain his hold on it. Like Aniel, the voice manifested inside their brains. "Humans who have sided with agents of Chaos, know that I—"

Raidou sprang up and stabbed the body. Rather than the sound of a blade puncturing flesh, or a thump, or even Gabriel shrieking, what sound emerged was the undeniable cry of a child in pain.

Like all the other sounds manifested by the archangel, it started within and radiated out of their bodies. In doing so, Goro received a clear mental image of exactly where and how the child was beaten to wretch such a cry out of their small body.

Raidou ripped the blade out, incandescent blood spraying out of Gabriel's torso, and another child's cry rent the air. Stabbed in the thigh, this one, before the knife dragged down their leg and split it open. The child's broken scream of pure pain and betrayal was far worse than any physical damage he'd experienced that night.

Oracle collapsed to the ground, hands over her ears. "No... Stop, stop!"

"Fuck," Raidou said again as she pulled a tube out her bandolier. "Gouto! Get them out of here! They can't handle this!"

Gouto-Douji broke out into a run. Goro grabbed Oracle by the arm and hauled her up. "Come on," he said as she shook, "we need to go!"

They all scrambled for the door, Goro at the rear with Oracle and Joker. Gouto-Douji opened the door, fur fluffed up as he stood outside and watched them all file out. Goro had handed Oracle to Joker and was shoving them out the door when a body slammed into the glass window next to them.

Raidou landed onto the ground with a pained grunt, although when she lifted her head, there was a deranged smile stretched across her bloody face. 

"Incoming!" Raidou yelled, and Goro shoved both Oracle and Joker outside as a blast of frozen wind hit them.

Or, rather, it tried to hit them. Gouto-Douji slammed the doors shut as soon as Oracle and Joker were outside, and Goro switched to Rahu just in time for the ice attack to bounce harmlessly off him.

"Raidou!" Gouto-Douji yelled from outside. "Watch the newbie! And don't die!"

"Like Cricket will let me," Raidou said, pushing herself up as a bisected demon barely strung together with their own organs floated towards Raidou. "Persephone," she said to the demon, "Petra Eyes the moment we get that angel pinned."

Persephone smiled. Gore dripped from her two halves. 

"If you," Raidou said to Goro as she struggled to her feet, "have some kind of healing, that'd be great."

Before Goro could say anything, another blast of ice swept through the area. Goro reflected the attack, and Persephone attempted to shield Raidou from the blast. Although the demon didn't seem bothered by the cold, the fact that she was split in half meant that her protection was half-hearted, and Raidou grunted in pain, bracing herself on her sword. This time, the storm of ice did not stop, and it constantly blew throughout the ground floor, encasing everything in a layer of ice and snow.

"Akechi," she said as Gouto-Douji begged Raidou to learn how to guard and people pounded on the glass from outside, "please tell me you have something that can heal me."

Rahu knew Diarahan. Switching to something else that could heal would make him vulnerable to the furious blizzard. 

"Losing health!" Raidou yelled.

" _You're_ losing health?" Cricket shouted back from somewhere near where Gabriel was.

"Oh, shit," Raidou said. 

"I hate all of you," Goro said, and then he summoned Rahu to cast Diarahan.

"Yeah, I'm sure the feeling's—" Raidou cut herself off as Rahu appeared, his magnificent schlong wriggling in the air as it cast the healing spell.

She stared at the space where Rahu was for a second after Goro banished him. The glass doors weren't sound proof. He could hear the mixed reactions of the other Shadow Operatives.

"Holy," Sanada began, then cut himself off and said nothing more.

"Erasing database memory of the previous four seconds," said Aigis.

"Oh," Queen said weakly. "I see why everyone was agitated before."

Kirijo said nothing, but somehow her disapproval managed to radiate through the glass.

Raidou Kuzunoha burst into laughter and nearly fell back down.

"That's so unfortunate," she said in between bouts of hyena-like laughter. "Rahu?! You have _Rahu_ in your head? You poor fool!"

"Raidou!" Cricket's voice was deep and loud enough to make the air tremble. Raidou brought their laughter down to a deranged giggle.

"You can move and guard at the same time!" Gouto-Douji shouted through the doors. "Don't run back in there blindly and lose all the health you—"

Raidou was still looking at the space where Rahu was with her visible eye. But this close, Goro could see the eye hidden behind her hair well enough to see it swivel to the side, where Gabriel and Cricket were fighting, independent of her other eye. 

Raidou pulled out a pistol and shot Gabriel through the gap between Persephone's body without turning her head.

Again, the sound manifested from within. This time the scream was accompanied by the knowledge that a child had been shot in the stomach, left alone to bleed out while in pain and agony. The child drew ragged breaths of air only to release them as more screams and sobs, each one growing weaker and weaker as they lost strength.

The blizzard stopped. The door opened, Someone reached in and yanked Goro out of the building. The door closed, and the screaming stopped instantly.

There was enough frost built up on the windows to make it difficult to see what was happening deeper in, so once Raidou leapt back into the fray, no one could make out what was going on.

Gouto-Douji tsked. "That could have gone a lot worse than it did. Come on. They can handle it from here, probably."

Joker let go of Goro. Goro turned to the cat. "Probably?"

Gouto-Douji's whiskers twitched. "There's backup on the way. This situation's turned out to be a lot more complicated than we expected. I'm sure someone'll be by later to fill you in, but for now, you all need to get out of the Domain."

"Could we please get a translation?" Queen asked, and Goro relayed what Gouto-Douji said.

No one complained about leaving. They left the Domain quickly, leaving behind the deranged skyscape and the smell and taste of chlorine. Once they were out, some of the Shadow Operatives sat on the ground. Futaba was one of them, crouched into a ball and breathing heavily as she stared at the sidewalk.

The air outside the Domain tasted too sweet and smokey after breathing in the sterile, chemical air of angels for so long. Gouto-Douji stood at the cusp of where the Domain began and reality ended, watching them all with his sharp green cat eyes.

"Hey, kid," he said to Goro, "I need to get back to make sure those two don't kick the bucket, but could you tell your boss and your co-workers something?"

"Sure."

Gouto-Douji took a deep breath and stared right into Goro's eyes. The intensity of his stare was on an entirely different level from Morgana's. "After we make our report to you, no matter how curious or invested any of you might be in what happened today, don't press the issue. Don't get involved any more than you already are."

It took Goro a second to respond. "That's ominous."

"It's ominous business. I'm serious. Someone will be by to make a report, even if I have to walk all the way there to do it myself. But don't butt into this anymore." Gouto-Douji sighed. "Trust me; this isn't worth it."

With that, he turned and vanished into the Domain. Goro watched the boundary ripple, showing glimpses of the dark world beyond the border, and then turned around.

Kirijo was staring at him, as were most of the others. "Akechi, what did he say?"

He inhaled. "Gouto-Douji says that someone will make a report to us later, but that we shouldn't involve ourselves in the matter any further."

"No complaints here," Futaba muttered into her knees, and Makoto patted her softly on the shoulder.

Kirijo said nothing for a moment. The sun was high enough to be seen, and the sounds of early mornings in Tokyo filtered past the barricade keeping the Domain off limits from the rest of the city. If the Kuzunohas didn't finish off Gabriel soon, then there'd be a lot more news and buzz about what happened.

"Very well," she said at last, and she stepped forward and led the rest of them towards the exit. "We'll wait until we hear their report to make any further decisions."

When they reached the barricade, the guards let two people slip past. One was a woman dressed in a pinstripe suit. She looked to be the same age as the older members of the Shadow Operatives, and the way she walked and held herself spoke of years of experience. The other person looked like a high school student, a uniform Goro didn't recognize worn sloppily on his frame. There was a gun holstered beneath his uniform jacket.

The Shadow Operatives stopped. The two strangers stopped. The student raised an eyebrow. 

"Oh, so you're the Persona users, huh?" he asked. He looked at them and nodded. "I don't recognize any of you."

"Excuse me," Kirijo said, "but should we know you? If you've gotten past the guards, then I'm assuming you're with the Kuzunoha clan?"

"You would be correct," the woman said, shoving the student back by putting her palm over his face. "My name is Rei Reiho. The punk behind me is— Wait, what are you going by these days?"

The student batted her hand off. "The legal name is Issei Chiba, but if we're to be working together, then you should know my real name: Kyouji Kuzunoha."

Kyouji announced his name like it meant something, but no one other than Reiho reacted. She put her hand on his face again and shoved him back with more force.

"Ignore him; he's being a brat since he is a brat right now. How are you all doing? We got a message from Raidou, but we aren't sure how badly they're faring. You all don't look too beat up."

"We will be fine," Kirijo said. "I admit to not having as much knowledge about the situation as I should to make a judgement call, but they were engaged in combat when we left."

Kyouji sighed and wandered ahead. "That kid's gonna be the death of themselves, I swear. Come on, Rei. Enough chit chatting. We've got a job to do."

Reiho's expression was equal parts exasperated and fond. "Sorry, but duty calls. It was nice to finally meet you all."

She followed after Kyouji, and Kirijo led the rest of them past the barricade and back to the limousines. The Shadow Operatives piled in, and Goro found himself sitting in between Joker and Labrys, with Futaba on Joker's other side and Makoto sitting between her and the partition. 

There was some idle conversation as the limo took off and began the drive back to HQ, but two red lights in, Ren suddenly broke out into a fit of laughter and buried his face in Goro's shoulder.

Goro tensed. He knew exactly what Ren was laughing about. If he was lucky, no one would mention it, question it, ask—

"Your dickhead Persona," Ren said, voice muffled. Not muffled enough, unfortunately, because Futaba groaned.

"Stoooooop! I hadn't thought about it since we got in the limo!!" She kicked out her legs and beat on Ren's side with her fists. "Why'd you have to bring it up?!"

"I feel exactly the same way," Goro said, bringing his hand to Ren's side and pinching it viciously. 

"There's no reason to be embarrassed," Narukami said as everyone else in the limousine tried their hardest to not look at Goro. "Your Persona was very robust."

Ren wheezed into Goro's shoulder.

Narukami continued, either oblivious or unconcerned about the glare Goro was levelling towards him. "Granted, your Persona's girth and length aren't as great as Mara's, but you should still be proud of it. Don't be ashamed of your Persona's small size," he said, voice perfectly monotone. "It's still a part of you."

"Yu," Shirogane said, pulling their hat over their eyes, "you're not being as helpful as you think you are."

Narukami snapped his mouth shut.

"It's true," Ren said. Goro pinched him harder in response, and he squirmed. "It's no Mara, but it represents you really well."

"I'm breaking up with you," Goro said flatly. Ren raised his head and smirked.

"Aw, honey, I'm gonna miss your dickhead self and your Persona so much if you leave."

"Stop talking about the dickhead!" Futaba yelled as she continued to hit Ren. "There's not enough cat pictures in the world to make it better!"

"I've got a private stash of cat pictures," Narukami said. "They're ones of the cats around my uncle's house. I could send them to you."

Goro leaned into the seat and tried not to seethe the entire way back as the conversation around him escalated. He was only moderately successful, and the moment they returned, he stomped back to his unit, Ren on his heels.

Ren followed him and slid into his apartment before Goro could slam the door shut on him. "Hey," he said, leaning against the door as Goro scowled at him, "thanks for saving my life."

Goro kicked off his shoes and admirably did not throw them at Ren's face. "I'm questioning that decision right now."

"Hmm," Ren said, raising his legs so he could slip his shoes off. Goro sighed. He wasn't going to leave without a fight. "I'm serious. Your Persona's hilarious, but I really appreciate knowing you have my back."

"Of course I do. I finally have you exactly where I want you, and I'm not about to lose you to any outside influence."

Ren dropped his shoes on the shoe rack and then stepped into Goro's personal space. "Exactly where you want me, huh?"

Ren's body was warm. His scent was familiar, despite the traces of chemical astringency lingering to his clothes. This close, Goro felt his annoyance grow muted. "You're right where I want you." He pulled on Ren's belt loops and closed the distance between them, kissing him deeply as he wrapped his arms around Ren's waist.

Ren responded instantly. His arms wrapped around Goro's neck, and he moaned as Goro licked inside his mouth before he pushed himself against Goro's body. They were adhered to each other, separated only by their clothing, and when Ren rolled his hips and grinded himself into Goro, Goro snapped and backed him up until Ren was against the door.

They parted for breath as Goro shifted his knee, and Ren's keening response was cut short when he laughed again.

"Sorry," he snickered as Goro pushed himself away. The distance between their bodies felt too cold. "I'm sorry, but I keep thinking about your dickhead Persona every time I think about your dick, and—"

Ren gripped Goro's biceps and laughed. Goro clenched his fists and swore to electrocute Rahu and grind whatever end result it produced into dust. 

"It bends the wrong way," Ren said, "and it has six eyes... The cleanup must be terrible."

Goro stepped away from the door and dragged Ren with him, getting them enough room to shove Ren to the ground. Ren stopped laughing as Goro pushed him over, catching himself on his hands as he sprawled out. Before he could say anything, though, Goro also got on the ground and crawled on top of him, then pushed at his chest so Ren lay prone on the floor.

"You keep talking about my Persona's dick," he growled. He slid a hand beneath Ren's shirt, and Ren's eyes lit up in anticipation. "That's the wrong one to focus on."

"Maybe you should remind me of the one you want me to think about," Ren said as he moved to unbutton Goro's top. "Make me forget all about your Persona."

Goro kissed him. They practically tore each other's shirts off, and Ren wrapped his legs around Goro's waist, which was wonderful except it made trying to get Ren's pants off a nightmare. They had just separated enough for Goro to pull Ren's pants and underwear off in one fell swoop when someone knocked on the door.

Both of them froze. Goro's arm was still outstretched from throwing Ren's pants to the side. Ren was naked except for his socks, hard cock twitching against his stomach when the knocking started again.

"Akechi-kun?" Labrys said from the other side. "I'm hopin' Amamiya-kun's with you, cause the Kuzunohas are here to give us their report."

Goro met Ren's eyes, then his view slid down to Ren's dick. Labrys knocked again.

"Akechi-kun? Are ya in there?" 

Goro cleared his throat loudly. "We'll be there in a few minutes," he shouted, his erection already flagging. "Thank you."

Ren sighed and thumped his head against the floor.


End file.
